BoltBus Long Island rebranding as 7Bus

It may have only launched locally six months ago, but BoltBus Long Island will soon vanish from Long Island roadways.

In its place will be 7Bus, a rebranded BoltBus clone under the same leadership that operated the Long Island to Manhattan shuttle service.

Operated by Bohemia-based Classic Coach, BoltBus Long Island has been making daily roundtrips to New York City from Riverhead, Ronkonkoma and Melville since December. BoltBus currently runs 14 daily roundtrips each weekday and eight or nine roundtrips Saturdays and Sundays, offering such amenities as leather seats, electrical outlets and Wi-Fi. The weekday morning and evening commuter runs sell out consistently.

Michael Schoolman, president of the local BoltBus operation, said Classic Coach decided to drop the license agreement with BoltBus in order to expand the transportation system’s offerings.

“We had a really good relationship with them,” Schoolman said of BoltBus. “We just wanted to offer more than their systems allowed, like commuter passes, intra-island travel and tourism packages. So we came out with our own brand.”

7Bus, named after the amount of money most commuters will spend for a seat on one of its buses – $7 – will operate using all of the same buses and drivers as BoltBus. The same routes will still be run with the same frequency, although 7Bus will add a stop in Southampton to its current slate of destinations. The actual location of the Southampton stop has not been decided as of yet, Schoolman noted.

“We’ve gotten a lot of requests for service out there,” he said. “We’re going to run it year-round.”

That Southampton stop will be one of the tie-ins for 7Bus’ new tourism packages, which could include outings to the beach and winery tours. In addition, under the new system, intra-island travel from Melville to Southampton, for example, will now be possible.

7Bus will also be adding two new stops in New York City as well. Riders will be able to be picked up at 47th Street and Lexington Avenue and dropped off at 47th Street and 3rd Avenue. The bus service currently stops on Third Avenue at 40th and 59th streets.

Schoolman said a couple of buses have been wrapped in the new logo so far, but the real switchover won’t take effect until late June.

Launched in 2008, BoltBus services commuters in the Northeast and Northwest, offering one rider a $1 fare – hence the company slogan, “Bolt for a buck” – although other fares are based on seat availability and demand, following the airlines’ model of yield management. The $1 fare lottery will be done away with under the new 7Bus system, although Schoolman said there will be far more $7 fares available than previously.

7Bus is also working on incorporating stops in Nassau County, although no points have been selected as of yet, Schoolman said.